UPDATE 2-China lets local governments sell bonds for the first time

Wed May 21, 2014 6:14am EDT

* Ten local govts allowed to sell and repay their own debt

* Pilot programme to spur clean-up of high public debt

* Active muni bond market seen as long-term solution

* Local govts can sell 400 bln yuan worth of bonds in 2014 (Adds comments, background)

BEIJING, May 21 (Reuters) - China has made a watershed move of letting 10 local governments sell and repay their own bonds in an experiment to straighten out its messy state budget, and start the clean-up of its $3 trillion public debt problem.

The finance ministry said the governments in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing, Qingdao, Ningxia and Jiangxi will be part of a pilot test that effectively creates China's first-ever municipal bond market.

This is the first time China has given its blueprint for the market, which has been heralded by experts as a key step to sorting out the country's fiscal debt woes.

The announcement of the plans on Wednesday, just a day after the top economic planner identified the creation of a municipal bond market as part of key changes for 2014, also suggests that China's policy makers are committed to continuing reforms in spite of a stumbling economy.

In a significant break from the past, the experiment lets local governments issue their own bonds and be responsible for repayments, contravening Chinese laws that bar local governments from directly borrowing from any parties.

The change implies that China's leaders are prepared to amend current budget laws that were previously resisted by fiscal conservatives.

The latest pilot expands on the previous programme. Local governments had depended on the Ministry of Finance to sell bonds on their behalf, an arrangement that left the ministry responsible for repayments.

In a statement on its website, the ministry said the experiment was effective immediately, and that the amount of cash governments can raise by selling bonds would be capped by a ceiling set by the Chinese cabinet.

Any government that fails to sell all the bonds that it is entitled to in a year cannot carry its unused rights into the next year. Bonds must trade in the interbank market or on the securities exchange.

"This opens a normal channel for local governments to raise funds," said Lian Ping, the chief economist at Bank of Communications in Shanghai.

REGULATED BY INVESTORS, HOPEFULLY

A state audit in December showed Chinese local governments owed a total of $3 trillion, after they created financing firms that borrowed on their behalf.

The creative financing methods that officials invented to circumvent the rules convinced experts that the only way to slow China's fast-rising debt pile was to set up a legal and transparent municipal bond market regulated by investors.

The hope was that this would subject local governments to investor scrutiny, leaving the weakest borrowers out of the market and forcing provinces to improve their fiscal health.

Indeed, the ministry said that any cash raised by issuing municipal bonds must be accounted for in official budgets, taking aim at the incessant government spending and borrowing in China that are not accounted for in state budgets.

And in a sign that authorities want to fix the maturity mismatch in public debt, the ministry said governments must sell bonds in five-, seven- and 10-year maturities in the proportion of 40 percent, 30 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Many Chinese governments in the past took out bank loans to pay for big infrastructure works. But repayment was often problematic because many loans were due well before projects generated income, resulting in a mismatch in maturities.

The 10 governments picked for the latest experiment are among the wealthiest in China and are, therefore, unlikely to have repayment problems, said Lian from Bank of Communications.

Any bond issued must be rated by ratings agencies and its price must be benchmarked against central government bonds.

If the yields of municipal bonds are set below the yields of central government bonds -- thereby implying that local government debt is safer than central government debt -- officials must submit an explanation to the finance ministry.

China said in March that local governments can sell 400 billion yuan worth of bonds in 2014, so the value of municipal bonds that the 10 governments can sell under this experiment is expected to count towards the 400 billion yuan limit.

Although China's huge public debt load has raised concerns of rising defaults as economic growth grinds to an expected 24-year low, government debt is still sought after by investors.

It is unclear who the biggest buyers of government debt are, but the fact that no sale of public debt has failed -- and that buying interest is actually rising -- shows that investors are sanguine about default risks.

But Guan Youqing, an economist at Minsheng Securities, is concerned about who ends up buying municipal bonds.

"I am a little bit worried that local governments would force state firms to buy their bonds," he said. (Reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Shao Xiaoyi in BEIJING and Lu Jianxin in SHANGHAI; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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UPDATE 1-Bank of England minutes show some members closer to voting for rate rise

Wed May 21, 2014 6:27am EDT

* Some MPC think rate rise decision now "more balanced"

* Easter helps retail sales to fastest growth since 2004

* MPC says low rates could distort housing market

* Pound at 5-1/2 yr high, gilt/Bund spread widest since 1998 (Adds retail sales data, market and analyst reaction)

By David Milliken and Ana Nicolaci da Costa

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Some Bank of England policymakers think the case for raising interest rates is becoming stronger as Britain's economy gets closer to operating at full steam, minutes of their last meeting showed on Wednesday.

"For some members, the monetary policy decision was becoming more balanced," the minutes for May 7-8 said.

"In terms of the immediate policy decision, however, all members agreed ... it would be necessary to see more evidence of slack reducing before an increase in Bank Rate would be warranted," the minutes said.

BoE Governor Mark Carney said last week that the economy had "edged closer" to the time when the central bank would need to raise interest rates.

Figures on Wednesday, for example, showed retail sales jumped by their biggest amount since May 2004 - aided in part by a late Easter.

"The debate is clearly shifting in favour of moving rates in the not too distant future," said George Buckley, UK economist at Deutsche Bank.

Sterling hit a 5-1/2 year high on a trade-weighted basis after the BoE minutes and the retail data, and British government bond prices fell. This caused the premium that 10-year gilts offer over German government bonds to spike around 3 basis points to 128.8 basis points - its highest since the third quarter of 1998.

There is increasing concern at the bank and elsewhere that British house prices are rising too far too fast. The bank said low rates could distort the property market.

House prices are up almost 10 percent nationally in the year to date, and on Tuesday Lloyds Banking Group said it would stop lending at multiples above four times a borrower's income for mortgages of over 500,000 pounds ($842,400) in order to reduce its exposure to London, where prices are rising fastest.

The BoE said that its Financial Policy Committee could tackle the housing issue when it meets next month, and that the decision on when to raise interest rates would be driven by a judgement on how much spare capacity remained in Britain's economy, which is growing at its fastest pace in years.

BoE forecasts last week showed that a rate rise in around a year would be consistent with keeping inflation just below the central bank's 2 percent target.

But some economists expect a minority of MPC members to start voting for a rate rise soon, and Wednesday's minutes suggest this could be on its way.

Adding to the mix, three new policymakers will join the Monetary Policy Committee in the next three months - Andy Haldane, currently the BoE's executive director for financial stability, former White House adviser and U.S. academic Kristin Forbes and Nemat Shafik from the International Monetary Fund.

GRADUAL RATE RISES

The BoE reiterated that it would only raise rates gradually, and to a level that was lower than before the financial crisis, but some policymakers saw this as a reason to raise rates sooner rather than later.

"It could be argued that the more gradual the intended rise in Bank Rate, the earlier it might be necessary to start tightening policy," the minutes said.

On the other hand, a premature rate rise could choke off growth, policymakers said.

They also remain divided on how much slack is in Britain's economy, and how fast it will be eroded as growth continues, the minutes said.

Although Britain's economy is still slightly smaller than before the financial crisis, the BoE forecasts it will grow by 3.4 percent this year, which would be its fastest rate of growth since 2007.

Wednesday's retail sales data suggest growth is in full swing. Retail sales in April jumped by 6.9 percent on the year, the strongest growth since May 2004, and annual sales growth in the three months to April matched February's rate of 4.6 percent, the fastest since January 2012.

"These data support our forecasts for above consensus growth and a first rate hike coming in Q1 2015. We see a 35 percent chance that the BoE hikes in Q4 2014," said Rob Wood, UK economist at Berenberg bank. ($1 = 0.5935 British Pounds) (Additional reporting by Belinda Goldsmith and Ana Nicolaci da Costa Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

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Floods inflict grievous blow on frail Balkan economies

Wed May 21, 2014 6:38am EDT

* Damage from flooding seen at billions of euros

* EU, EBRD to assess how to help

* Damage to infrastructure, energy, agriculture

By Daria Sito-Sucic and Ivana Sekularac

MAGLAJ, Bosnia/BELGRADE, May 20 (Reuters) - When the waters receded, hundreds of employees at the paper and pulp factory in the Bosnian town of Maglaj turned up for work. Armed with shovels, they began to clear the mud that caked the Natron Hayat mill, where machinery had sat for days submerged under three metres of water.

The factory was wrecked, and barely a house in the town around it was left untouched by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory.

Maglaj was a picture of destruction, and of the economic toll on a region woefully unfit to foot the bill.

"We all live off this factory, and the sooner production resumes, the sooner the town will return to life," said mill worker Mirza Mahic, shovel in hand.

Two decades after the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia and put much of the region on Western financial life support, Serbia and Bosnia must again look to Europe for the money to recover from days of devastating floods.

In Bosnia alone, forecasts of the damage top 1 billion euros ($1.37 billion). Given the destruction inflicted on agricultural land and the energy network, imports are set to rise, impacting economic growth and inflation. Food prices could soar.

Estimating the damage in Bosnia at 1.3 billion euros, or roughly 10 percent of national output, Raiffeisen Bank said on Tuesday its forecast of 1.5 percent economic growth this year was under pressure.

Already struggling with very high unemployment, lower growth will only make it harder for the countries' populations to find regular work. Bosnia's jobless rate is running at around 40 percent and Serbia's at 25 percent, according to official estimates, with many workers scratching out a basic living in the grey economy.

Bosnia's presidency has asked the central government to request reprogramming of the country's international loans and for commercial banks to adjust loan repayments for Bosnians hit by the flooding. The government says they number in the hundreds of thousands, and that more than 100,000 buildings are unusable.

In Serbia, sandbag barriers largely kept the waters from the country's biggest power plant, Nikola Tesla, but the largest coal mine that supplies it was turned into a lake 60 metres deep in some parts. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says the clean-up at the complex will cost more than 100 million euros.

Energy production, already down 40 percent, could be limited for months. "It will take us a year to recover production here and take the water out," Kolubara mine general manager Milenko Grgic told state television.

Envoys from the European Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) visit the region this week to see the damage first-hand.

As a candidate for EU membership, Serbia qualifies for the bloc's Solidarity Fund, providing the damage amounts to at least 0.64 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or around $240 million. Serbia plans a donor conference on Thursday.

"LOST EVERYTHING"

Bosnia, however, is yet to qualify for candidacy due to years of foot-dragging by a political elite still split along ethnic lines. A spokesman for the EU's mission in Bosnia said the bloc's executive arm, the Commission, was urgently looking at how to pull together a support package for the country.

"The flooding destroyed not only the houses and businesses but also the infrastructure, inflicting huge damage to roads, bridges, railway tracks and waterworks, which will need major investment," said Aleksa Milojevic, director of the Economic Institute in the flood-hit town of Bijeljina in eastern Bosnia.

Milojevic said the agriculture and cattle stock in Bosnia's northern Semberija region, the country's granary, was completely destroyed because of the failure of authorities to react quickly to warnings of the impending floods.

Bosnia's central government will discuss the impact with the International Monetary Fund, which begins a 10-day review of a standby loan deal on Wednesday. The deal is already frozen over the failure of governments in the country's two autonomous republics to agree on economic policies.

"The floods will have significant implications for the budgets, both on spending and revenue sides," the Fund's envoy to Bosnia, Ruben Atoyan, told Reuters.

Serbia, too, is due to begin talks soon on a new precautionary loan deal with the IMF. The Washington-based lender is looking for deep spending cuts but the floods may have ruined the best-laid plans of Finance Minister Lazar Krstic.

In Serbia, agriculture accounts for roughly 12 percent of GDP and is valued at $5 billion. The sector accounts for 25 percent of total exports. Fortunately, Serbia's breadbasket, the northern Vojvodina region, was spared the worst of the flooding. But the sector did not escape completely.

"If 10 percent of agricultural production was affected it means that the damage could amount to $500 million," said Milan Prostran, former head of the agriculture department at Serbia's Chamber of Commerce.

Small farmers in both countries were hit hardest.

"We all lived off raspberries, and now it's all gone," said Elvir Cizmic from the Zeljezno Polje region in central Bosnia, where landslides left over 5,000 people homeless and destroyed raspberry fields.

"We had an annual output of 3 million marka ($2.1 million) from raspberries," Cizmic said. "I can't believe that in one hour I lost everything I had worked for my whole life." (Additional reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic in Zagreb and Gordana Katana in Banja Luka; Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Matt Robinson and Toby Chopra)

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Yield-starved investors seek dividend income as share rally falters

Tue May 20, 2014 5:46am EDT

* Dividend investing back in fashion as rally falters

* Low bond yields limit alternatives to equities

* Vodafone, Apple, BHP Billiton screen as reliable payers

By Francesco Canepa

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Global investors are hunting for reliable dividend payouts as they grapple with jittery equity markets and meagre bond yields, marking the revival of an investment style that has been shunned for the past two years.

Dividend investing is back in vogue as lofty equity valuations, amid still sluggish economic growth, cap the potential for further share price gains while low bond yields limit the attraction of fixed-income assets.

Having lagged a market rally over the past two years, the MSCI World High Dividend Yield Index has outperformed this year as more cyclical sectors, such as Internet companies and small caps, falter and yields on lower-rated bonds remain depressed.

"People have become more risk averse and that is a big element of the dividend story," said Andrew Parry, chief executive officer of Hermes Sourcecap, which manages assets worth 2.4 billion euros ($3.29 billion).

"And with bond yields so utterly low ... you buy equities to bolster your returns."

The MSCI World High Dividend Yield Index offers a yield of 3.8 percent, compared to 2.5 percent for the broader MSCI World Index and 1.8 percent for global bonds in a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index, Datastream data showed.

The dividend index underperformed the market in 2012 and 2013 as investors bet on economic recovery and leaned towards stocks with high growth prospects, such as small-cap companies, tech stocks like Facebook or Twitter and euro-zone banks.

CAPITAL PRESERVATION

The high-dividend index is comprised of companies which offer higher-than-average dividend yields and whose balance sheet and earnings can sustain future payouts.

They include U.S. pharmaceutical and consumer goods company Johnson & Johnson, Swiss food maker Nestle and oil major Chevron.

"The focus should be on capital preservation," said Andrew Lapthorne, head of quantitative equity research at Societe Generale.

"You're not really looking for upside in the stock, you're looking for stocks which do best if there is a market wobble. For that, you always want to minimise your balance sheet risk and dividend payments that are covered by profitability."

Global sectors that stand out for dividend payouts are telecoms, utilities and oil & gas, with yields of between 3 percent and 4.5 percent, Datastream data showed.

Dividend investors must be careful to weigh high payout ratios against the risk a company may be forced to cut its dividend in the face of shrinking profit or mounting debt.

For this reason, fund managers screen for large-cap companies which boast high returns and low debt, such as British telecoms operator Vodafone, U.S. consumer technology group Apple and global miner BHP Billiton .

They are among 87 large caps that are expected to offer a dividend yield of more than 5 percent on annual profit for this year, carry a net debt pile worth less than half their equity and have a return on equity of more than 20 percent, according to StarMine data.

"Dividend investing is attractive in the current environment," John Ventre, head of multi-manager at Old Mutual Global Investors, which manages assets worth 6.2 billion pounds ($10.43 billion).

"(But) the yield needs to be sustainable, so you should be looking for stocks which won't need to cut their dividend." ($1 = 0.5942 British pounds) ($1 = 0.7297 euros) (Editing by Lionel Laurent and Susan Fenton)

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RPT-Fitch: CS Deal Temporarily Hits Capital, Franchise Harm Unlikely

Tue May 20, 2014 6:15am EDT

(Repeat for additional subscribers)

May 20 (Reuters) - (The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Credit Suisse's USD2.8bn settlement with several US authorities announced last night represents a temporary set-back in reaching its stated capital ratio target but we do not believe it will cause significant damage to its franchise.

The guilty plea by Credit Suisse AG, the group's main banking subsidiary in Switzerland, will not result in licence withdrawals, according to the Swiss regulator's report published this morning. No further proceedings will be initiated concerning licences of Credit Suisse in the US or in the UK, the report said.

We also expect there will be no requirement to curtail existing business for any entities of the Credit Suisse group. We believe that the settlement and guilty plea will not result in any significant disruption of Credit Suisse's operations as it is in the interest of authorities to avoid material damage to the industry, including the large US banks.

There are no changes to Credit Suisse's ratings (A/Stable/a) at this stage. The bank announced it would take actions to support its capitalisation. If the measures, which include reducing risk-weighted assets and selling assets, are not successful or if the damage to Credit Suisse's franchise is materially larger than currently anticipated, we would consider reviewing the ratings, and potentially downgrading the Viability Rating.

The settlement will have a negative impact on 2Q14 pre-tax earnings of USD1.8bn (net of available legal provisions of USD1bn), which is in our view likely to result in a small pre-tax loss in 2Q14. Credit Suisse's fully applied Basel III pro-forma common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio at end-1Q14 would drop to 9.3% from 10.0%, which is at the lower end of its global trading and universal banks peer group. The bank has announced it will take actions to restore its fully loaded CET1 ratio to 10% by end-2014 and has reconfirmed its 11% end-2015 target. This is positive as the bank does not plan to rely on internal capital generation from operating businesses.

The Credit Suisse case is part of a broader investigation by the US authorities into the alleged assistance certain Swiss banks provided to US persons to evade or avoid paying tax. The Credit Suisse investigation has been ongoing since 2011; the bank had announced the exit from US resident cross-border business in 2009. According to a US Senate subcommittee report, Credit Suisse at end-2006 had up to CHF12bn assets under management from US customers with Swiss accounts. The bank has stated that about USD5bn of this had been verified to be tax-compliant.

Fitch views this as an example of the escalating level of fines being extracted from banks by the US authorities, including the Department of Justice. UBS went through a similar case to Credit Suisse's in 2009, which resulted in a fine of USD780m. The amount Credit Suisse has to pay is higher, even though the size of its egregious business was smaller.

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MOVES- Massachusetts State Pension Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

Tue May 20, 2014 6:21am EDT

May 20 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Tuesday. To inform us of other job changes, email to moves@thomsonreuters.com.

MASSACHUSETTS STATE PENSION FUND

The state's $58 billion pension fund hired Andre Clapp as its senior investment officer for public markets. Clapp, who has a PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, joins the pension fund from Boston-based investment management firm GMO and Co, where he oversaw $700 million in assets as a portfolio manager in the international active division.

ABU DHABI INVESTMENT AUTHORITY (AIDA)

The investment company, wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, appointed Christof Ruehl as its first global head of research, effective July. Ruehl comes from BP Plc, where her served as group chief economist and vice president since 2005, managing BP's global economics team.

BROOKS MACDONALD EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

The unit of wealth management group Brooks Macdonald Group Plc appointed Camille French as client relationship manager to its London team. French will be responsible for building the company's existing relationships with small-to-medium sized employers. French served most recently at JLT Employee Benefits, a unit of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc , where she assisted clients with their specific requirements for auto enrolment, flexible benefits, employee engagement and other areas of employee benefits.

INVESCO POWERSHARES

The provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a part of Invesco Ltd, appointed Bryon Lake as head of Invesco PowerShares ETFs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Lake, who joined the company in 2002, most recently served as global business development head.

CASTLE TRUST

The UK-based financial services company appointed Barry Searle as chief operating officer with immediate effect, subject to regulatory approval. Searle has previously served in the same position at GMAC Residential Funding Corp. (Compiled by Natalie Grover in Bangalore)

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UPDATE 2-KKR in advanced talks to buy Singapore's Goodpack - sources

Mon May 19, 2014 6:36am EDT

* Goodpack says in talks with one party on possible transaction

* Goodpack shares are up 25 pct this year

* Australia's Brambles ended talks in March to buy Goodpack

* DBS says offer price could be in S$2.50-S$2.80 per share range (Adds details of Goodpack statement, closing share price)

By Stephen Aldred

HONG KONG, May 19 (Reuters) - KKR & Co is nearing a deal to buy Singapore's Goodpack Ltd, the world's largest maker of intermediate bulk containers which has a market value of S$1.36 billion ($1.1 billion), sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

If successful, the purchase would be the first of a listed company from KKR's latest Asia fund, which raised $6 billion. The proposed deal would give KKR access to a niche business, with a global network and supply chain management that is hard to replicate, DBS Group said in a research note.

The U.S. private equity firm is working with at least two investment banks on a debt package to buy Goodpack, the sources said. KKR has been in discussions to buy Goodpack for nearly a year, but talks are now at an advanced stage, they said, adding that there was no guarantee a deal would be clinched.

Goodpack said in March it had been in discussions with unnamed parties which might lead to a buyout of the company, and hired Rippledot Capital to advise on the process.

Goodpack, which makes containers used in the rubber, tyre and food industries, had attracted interest from private equity firms Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group, Reuters previously reported. In March, Australian pallet maker Brambles Ltd said it had ended talks to buy Goodpack.

The DBS research note last week said that an offer could range from S$2.50 to S$2.80 per share assuming price to earnings ratio of 17 to 19 times. That would value Goodpack at as much as S$1.57 billion.

On Monday, Goodpack shares closed up 0.8 percent at S$2.47, while the Straits Times Index was flat. The stock is up around 25 percent so far this year, far outpacing a 3.1 percent rise in the benchmark index.

FINANCING PACKAGE

Goodpack's founder David Lam controls around 32 percent of the company. KKR's Southeast Asia head Ming Lu is leading the transaction for the private equity firm, one of the sources said.

The financing package is expected to feature leverage of as much as six times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), or around $600 million, the sources added.

Goodpack on Monday issued a statement confirming that it is in discussions with one party, without naming the potential investor.

"Discussions are still on-going and there is no certainty whatsoever that these discussions will result in any transaction," the statement said.

KKR declined to comment. The sources declined to be identified as the discussions are confidential.

Goodpack specializes in environmentally friendly intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) that could replace wooden boxes and metal drums widely used in bulk cargo today. The firm operates the world's largest fleet of steel IBCs, which are leased to companies operating in the rubber and tyre, food and chemical industries.

Interest in the company comes as private equity M&A in Asia had its strongest start to the year since 2011, with first-quarter volume up 48 percent on year to $9.4 billion, Thomson Reuters data show.

The company previously hired Macquarie Group as it eyed a possible sale in 2008, and Brambles and packaging company Loscam Ltd were reported as possible suitors at that time. [link.reuters.com/qet28v ] ($1 = 1.2507 Singapore Dollars) (Additional reporting by Rujun Shen in SINGAPORE; Editing by Denny Thomas and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Update-Moody's:Sunac's proposed acquisition of Greentown is credit negative for Sunac

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

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EU says progress made in Russia-Ukraine gas dispute

BERLIN Mon May 19, 2014 6:43am EDT

BERLIN May 19 (Reuters) - Europe's Energy Commissioner said on Monday progress had been made in the gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine after he held talks with Russia's energy minister and a senior representative of Gazprom .

"We have in the last few days made progress on a number of issues but we still have no agreement," said Guenther Oettinger, also reiterating that the next round of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU would take place on May 26.

He said that prices for the period from November to March were cleared up but that they were still working on prices for April, May and June. He added that aid packages from the International Monetary Fund and European Union could be used to pay for past and future gas deliveries. (Reporting by Markus Wacket and Michael Nienaber; Writing by Madeline Chambers)

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UPDATE 2-India's Modi gets hero's welcome as he brings new era to New Delhi

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

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